Apparatus for washing and oiling vehicle-wheels



T-. A. MILLER. 'Apparatus for Washing and Oil'ing Vehicle-Wheels No. 227,121. Patented May 4,1880.

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TRUE A. MILLER, OF ELMWOOD, ILLINOIS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 227,121, dated May 4, 1880.

Application filed February 17, 1880.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, TRUE ALVIN MILLER,

' of Elmwood, in the county of Peoria, in the State of Illinois, have invented an Apparatus for Washing Vehicle-W'heels and Oiling them; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, in which like letters of reference refer to like parts, and in which Figure 1 represents a vertical section upon line a a, Fig. 2; Fig. 2, a horizontal section on line I) b, Fig. l Fig. 3, a vertical section of the oil-trough; Fig. at, cross-section of same.

The object of this invention is to prevent abrasion of the varnished or painted surface of vehicle-wheels in washing them, particularly buggy and carriage wheels, and at the same time to wash them with ease and celerity. It is well known that cloths, or even a sponge, by retaining sand or other scratching matter, continually injure such surfaces, and when even a broom is resorted to the damage is still more.

My invention also includes devices to pass the fellies of a wheel through oil.

To accomplish the first part of my invention, I take off the wheel from the vehicle and run a short spindle through the hub; then place the spindle across a water-trough in bearings or journals, to which spindlea crank is fixed, and the wheel rotated at good speed in the water in said trough until the mud is washed off. The spindle has a collar at one end, which abuts against the end'of the iron boxing within the hub of the wheel, while a similar movable collar or sleeve abuts upon the other end of said boxing, pressed forward thus by means of a nut or the head or threaded eye of the applied crank, which is used to turn the spindle and wheel.

The second part of my invention 1 accomplish by the use of an auxiliary trough containing oil and placeable within said watertrough, and within which said wheel can be rotated as described already.

In the drawings, which show one of the forms in which I construct my invention, A represents a deep trough having at each end horizontal water-guards m m, held in grooves in the inclined ends of the trough to preventthe wheel in revolving from throwing out water; a, brackets or journals at each side of said trough, having pivot or spindle holes in each to admit the spindle B, which has a head, I), and a collar, d, abutting against the boxing g of the hub f of the vehicle wheel, and a sleeve, 0, abutting against the opposite end of said boxing, to prevent the wheel from rotat ing on said spindle when pressed forward by means of the eye of the crank (1, which contains a thread to fit that of the spindle B. By this means the boxing g is confined sufficiently for the purposes of revolving said wheel by means of the crank O.

D represents the oiling-box, which is an oblong trough made deep enough merely to contain a sufficient depth of oil in which to submerge the fellics, said oiling-box being used within the water-trough when the latter is emptied, and into which said oiling-trough is lifted by means of the rods h h at either end.

i is a guard across the end of the trough next to the spout 7a, to prevent the oil, in returning the same to its can or bottle, from spilling and direct it into spout k.

The operation of this invention is simple. The hub f of the vehicle-wheel is slipped upon the spindle B, first removing the sleeve 6 and the crank G, by passing said spindle at once through the journals to a and the hub f and the said sleeve 0, then screwing the crank tightly upon the spindle against said sleeve 0. The wheel can now be rotated to wash it at a great velocity without in the slightest degree injuring the gloss or surface of the same, as is done by means of cloths, sponges, or brooms.

When the fellies need oiling the trough A is emptied and the oil-trough D placed within the same by means of the rods h h, and filled with oil. The wheel-fellies are immersed therein in a similar manner as described for the washing of the same.

hat Iclaim as my invention isl. The oil-trough D, having guard i and spout k, with handles h, adapted for emplacement within the washing-trough A, as described.

2. As a new article of manufacture, avehi- I00 ole-Wheel washer and oiler composed of a- In testimony that I claim the foregoing ap- 1o Water-trough, A, provided With a spindle, 13, paratus for Washing Wheels I have hereunto having at its outer end a collar or sleeve cl, set my hand this 26th day of January, A. D. to pass within a vehicle-hub and abut against 1880.

5 the boxin g of same, and a corresponding sleeve,

6, to abut against the opposite end of said TRUE ALVIN MILLER boxing, the whole held during rotation of the Witnesses: Wheel by the pressure of the threaded socket J. M. MORSE,

of the crank O, as described. H. W. WELLS. 

